Peter Ahrens, a post-war German student at Tonbridge School

MY EXPERIENCE AS A POST-WAR GERMAN AT TONBRIDGE SCHOOL

BY PETER AHRENS

I was born in the midst of World War Two in Germany’s Soviet Occupation Zone, or East Germany as it would later be known. As Russia’s Stalinist tendencies became clearer in our occupied zone, my family fled as refugees to West Germany in 1949. The post-war West Germany that we arrived in was also under military occupation and completely destroyed, but it offered us the prospect of relative freedom.

Like the millions of other refugees, my family’s immediate challenge was to find shelter. We ended up in a small university town, Marburg an der Lahn, where my father opened a small textiles shop and began to rebuild our livelihood. Since my family had no money nor a roof over our heads, we lived and slept in the shop for a number of years; our tiny living quarters separated from the shop floor by a wooden wall.

In 1948, the US-led Marshall Plan was enacted, fuelling economic recovery in Germany. Our own financial situation improved markedly and in 1955, my father was able to buy our first home. I was sent to a German boarding school aged 11, which provided both my parents the time and flexibility to relaunch their small retail and, later, department store business. My boarding school had been modelled largely on an English boarding school and it maintained relationships with a number of public schools in the UK, including Tonbridge.

The US, Britain and France ended their 10-year military occupation of Germany in May 1955. My English teacher at the time, Kenneth Lander – a native Brit – decided to send me to Tonbridge School as an exchange student. I arrived in the summer of 1958 and was fortunate to spend an entire term at the school, placed in Manor House where Vernon Hedley-Jones was Housemaster. I shared a study with Michael Holman, who later became Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Leeds. He was a talented linguist and fluent in a number of languages, including German. Michael and I remained friends for many years after we both left Tonbridge, and he even came to stay with us in Germany many years later.

With WW2 hostilities having finished barely a dozen years earlier, I was admittedly a little apprehensive about arriving at Tonbridge. I had no idea how being German might be received by the other boys. Contrary to my worst fears, I could not have been made to feel more welcome by the boys, the masters and in fact everyone that I met during my three months at Tonbridge. I was impressed by the pride felt by everyone about Tonbridge’s centuries-old history and the many traditions that seemed so dear and important to everyone associated with the school, both past and present. Tonbridge also opened my eyes to embracing a much more international world; I remember how struck I was by the not inconsiderable number of boys at Tonbridge from Commonwealth nations.

My life after Tonbridge initially took me back to Germany where I got married to my wife Karin in 1965. I started working in Japan for a German retail conglomerate in 1964 and my twin boys were born there two years later. We decided to return to Germany the following year where our third son was born in 1968. At the tender age of 29 I I had no idea how being German might be received by the other boys. Contrary to my worst fears, I could not have been made to feel more welcome by the boys, the masters and in fact everyone that I met during my three months at Tonbridge.

Some might accuse me of nostalgia at this more advanced stage of my life, but I always felt a deeply held gratitude for my serendipitous encounter with Tonbridge School in the summer of 1958.

took over my parents’ department store business that in the meantime had grown considerably from its humble post-war corner store beginnings.

Notwithstanding the tumultuous times in Britain in the mid-1970s, it was only natural that my wife and I would have wanted our three boys also to attend a British public school. At the time, we decided against Eton and Harrow and in favour of Tonbridge School, expertly advised by my not entirely unbiased former Housemaster, but equally impressed by the then Headmaster, Christopher Everett. We particularly valued his wise counsel and his many insights over the years. While my sons were at Tonbridge, we particularly enjoyed our annual pilgrimage to Skinners Day where we spent many joyful hours with parents of our sons’ friends, some of whom we have remained in touch with to this very day. Much to my sons’ embarrassment, I even got an honourable mention one year in Christopher Everett’s Skinners Day speech. In the best German beach-towel tradition, and possibly not entirely sober, I had parked our car in a strategically advantaged position next to the Head the night before Skinners Day.

All three boys, Nikolai, Alexei and Sebastian, had a particularly happy time at School House and we never regretted our decision to entrust much of their upbringing to David Robins, their Housemaster, and the many talented teachers at Tonbridge School. One son went up to Oxford to read Biochemistry, one studied Economics at Lausanne University in Switzerland and the third read Natural Sciences at Cambridge. The public school ‘tradition’ has now continued into a third generation with my son Nikolai’s children currently at Harrow School, Winchester College and Cheltenham Ladies College.

Tonbridge School has left an indelible mark on my life and subsequently set the course for my entire family, by default. Some might accuse me of nostalgia at this more advanced stage of my life, but I always felt a deeply held gratitude for my serendipitous encounter with Tonbridge School in the summer of 1958 ●